Nigerian comedian and actor, Bovi Ugboma, has revealed that he chose not to beat his son, despite the child breaking their television three times, because he does not believe physical punishment is the right way to correct a child.
Speaking on The Honest Bunch podcast aired on Monday, Bovi shared his experiences as a father, explaining how he managed situations where his child expressed anger by breaking household items, including the family’s television.
He emphasised the importance of patience and understanding in parenting, urging parents to avoid resorting to corporal punishment.
He said, “I don’t advocate for beating children. You should let children be. My son dey break television for the fun of it. If he vex, he go throw stuff and break it. He got to an age, and I saw the remorse. Thank God for capacity; if I couldn’t afford another TV, then the approach would have been different. That’s why I tell people, most times when we hit kids, check: are you really trying to correct them, or are you frustrated?”
Bovi revealed that the third television his child had broken was the incident he shared publicly in 2021.
The comedian also spoke out against bullying in schools, criticising the practice of giving older students authority over their younger peers, a system he believes fosters abuse and unhealthy power dynamics.
“No child should be given authority over another child in the name of ‘senior student.’ They are children,” he said.
Bovi questioned the logic of teenagers punishing their peers, highlighting the flaws in such a system.
“When you follow our educational scheme, a 16-year-old is in SS3. What does a 16-year-old know about authority? It is wrong. It’s creating a system of abuse and hierarchy. It really has to stop. A teenager is punishing a teenager. Do you force respect on people? Can anybody confidently sit and watch a 16-year-old flog their child because the child did something wrong? Will you let him because he’s the senior?”
He linked this issue to the broader culture of respect through fear, arguing that it originates in secondary schools.
“The white man left us and created a system for us to colonise ourselves. So everybody is waiting to get to that top to show themselves to everybody. That’s why somebody can tell a fellow man, ‘Do you know who I am?’ It starts from secondary school with a glorified torture where a student beats another student.”
On parenting, Bovi stressed the importance of recognising the uniqueness of each child and avoiding a uniform approach to raising them.
He said, “You can’t raise four children the same way. That’s why you see some children say, ‘I love my dad,’ and the sibling is saying, ‘I hate my dad.’ It’s because the father used the same template for all of them.”
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